Moondog Biography and career
Where was Moondog born?
Where was Moondog born?
Born to an Episcopalian family in Marysville, Kansas, Hardin started playing a set of drums that he made from a cardboard box at the age of five. His family relocated to Wyoming and his father opened a trading post at Fort Bridger. He attended school in a couple of small towns. At one point, his father took him to an Arapaho Sun Dance where he sat on the lap of Chief Yellow Calf and played a tom-tom made from buffalo skin.  Hardin played drums for the high school band in Hurley, Missouri before losing his sight at the age of 16 in a farm accident on July 4, 1932, involving a dynamite cap. After learning the principles of music in several schools for blind young men across middle America, he taught himself the skills of ear training and composition. He studied with Burnet Tuthill and at the Iowa School for the Blind.  He then moved to Batesville, Arkansas where he lived until 1942, when he got a scholarship to study in Memphis, Tennessee. Although the majority of his musical training was self-taught by ear, he learned some music theory from books in braille there.  In 1943 Hardin moved to New York, where he met noted classical music luminaries such as Leonard Bernstein and Arturo Toscanini, as well as legendary jazz performer-composers such as Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman, whose upbeat tempos and often humorous compositions would influence Hardin's later work. One of his early street posts was near the famed 52nd Street nightclub strip, and he was well-known to many jazz musicians and fans. By 1947 Hardin had adopted the name "Moondog" in honor of a dog "who used to howl at the moon more than any dog I knew of". CANNOTANSWER
Episcopalian family in Marysville, Kansas,
Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), known professionally as Moondog, was an American composer, performing musician, theoretician, poet, and inventor of several musical instruments. Largely self-taught as a composer, his work drew inspiration from jazz, classical, Latin, and Native American music. His music, strongly rhythmic and contrapuntal, later influenced minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

Moondog was blind from the age of 16. He lived in New York City from the late 1940s until 1972; during this time he could often be found on 6th Avenue, between 52nd and 55th Streets, wearing a cloak and a horned helmet. He sometimes busked or sold music, but often just stood silently on the sidewalk. He was recognized as "the Viking of 6th Avenue" by thousands of passersby and residents who were not aware of his musical career.

Biography and career

Early life
Born to an Episcopalian family in Marysville, Kansas, United States, Hardin started playing a set of drums that he made from a cardboard box at the age of five. His family relocated to Wyoming and his father opened a trading post at Fort Bridger. He attended school in a couple of small towns. At one point, his father took him to an Arapaho Sun Dance where he sat on the lap of Chief Yellow Calf and played a tom-tom made from buffalo skin. He also played drums for the high school band in Hurley, Missouri.

On July 4, 1932, the 16-year-old Hardin found an object in a field which he did not realise was a dynamite cap. While he was handling it the explosive detonated in his face and permanently blinded him. After learning the principles of music in several schools for blind young men across middle America, he taught himself the skills of ear training and composition. He studied with Burnet Tuthill at the Iowa School for the Blind.

He then moved to Batesville, Arkansas, where he lived until 1942, when he obtained a scholarship to study in Memphis, Tennessee. Although he was largely self-taught in music, learning predominantly by ear, he learned some music theory from books in braille during his time in Memphis.

In 1943, Hardin moved to New York, where he met classical musicians including Leonard Bernstein and Arturo Toscanini, as well as jazz performers such as Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman, whose upbeat tempos and often humorous compositions would influence Hardin's later work. One of his early street posts was near the 52nd Street nightclub strip, and he was known to jazz musicians. By 1947, Hardin had adopted the name "Moondog" in honor of a dog "who used to howl at the moon more than any dog I knew of".

New York City
From the late 1940s until 1972, Moondog lived as a street musician and poet in New York City, playing in midtown Manhattan, eventually settling on the corner of 53rd or 54th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. He was rarely if ever homeless, and maintained an apartment in upper Manhattan and had a country retreat in Candor, New York, to which he moved full-time in 1972. He partially supported himself by selling copies of his poetry and his musical philosophy. In addition to his music and poetry, he was also known for the distinctive fanciful "Viking" cloak that he wore. Already bearded and long-haired, he added a Viking-style horned helmet to avoid the occasional comparisons of his appearance with that of Christ or a monk, as he had rejected Christianity in his late teens. He developed a lifelong interest in Nordic mythology, and maintained an altar to Thor in his country home in Candor.

In 1949, he traveled to a Blackfoot Sun Dance in Idaho where he performed on percussion and flute, returning to the Native American music he first came in contact with as a child. It was this Native music, along with contemporary jazz and classical, mixed with the ambient sounds from his environment (city traffic, ocean waves, babies crying, etc.) that created the foundation of Moondog's music.

In 1954, he won a case in the New York State Supreme Court against disc jockey Alan Freed, who had branded his radio show, "The Moondog Rock and Roll Matinee",  around the name "Moondog", using "Moondog's Symphony" (the first record that Moondog ever cut) as his "calling card". Moondog believed he would not have won the case had it not been for the help of musicians such as Benny Goodman and Arturo Toscanini, who testified that he was a serious composer. Freed had to apologize and stop using the nickname "Moondog" on air, on the basis that Hardin was known by the name long before Freed began using it.

Germany

Along with his passion for Nordic culture, Moondog had an idealised view of Germany ("The Holy Land with the Holy River" — the Rhine), where he settled in 1974.

Moondog revisited the United States briefly in 1989, for a tribute at the New Music America Festival in Brooklyn, in which festival director Yale Evelev asked him to conduct the Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, stimulating a renewed interest in his music.

Eventually, a young German student named Ilona Goebel (later known as Ilona Sommer) helped Moondog set up the primary holding company for his artistic endeavors and hosted him, first in Oer-Erkenschwick, and later on in Münster in Westphalia. Moondog lived with Sommer's family and they spent time together in Münster. During that period, Moondog created hundreds of compositions which were transferred from Braille to sheet music by Sommer. Moondog spent the remainder of his life in Germany.

On 8 September 1999, he died in Münster from heart failure. He is buried at the Central Cemetery Münster. His tomb was designed by the artist Ernst Fuchs after the death mask.

He recorded many albums, and toured both in the U.S. and in Europe—France, Germany and Sweden.

Music
Moondog's music took inspiration from street sounds, such as the subway or a foghorn. It was characterized by what he called "snaketime" and described as "a slithery rhythm, in times that are not ordinary [...] I'm not gonna die in 4/4 time". Many of his works were highly contrapuntal, and he worked hard on counterpoint.

Moondog's work was praised by Artur Rodziński, the conductor of New York Philharmonic in the 1940s. He released a number of 78s, 45s and EPs of his music in the 1950s, including an unusual record of stories and songs for children with Julie Andrews and Martyn Green, in 1957, called Songs of Sense and Nonsense - Tell it Again, as well as several LPs on the Prestige, a jazz label. For ten years no new recordings were heard from Moondog until producer James William Guercio took him into the studio to record an album titled Moondog for Columbia Records in 1969. "Stamping Ground" from the album was included on the 1970 CBS sampler Fill Your Head with Rock. 

A second album produced with Guercio, entitled Moondog 2, featured Moondog's daughter June (b. 1953) as a vocalist and contained song compositions in canons and rounds. The album did not make as large an impression in popular music as the first had. The two Columbia albums were re-released as a single CD in 1989.

Inventions

Moondog also invented several musical instruments, including a small triangular-shaped harp known as the "oo", another which he named the "ooo-ya-tsu", and a triangular stringed instrument played with a bow that he called the "hüs" (after the Norwegian, "hus", meaning "house"). Perhaps his best known creation is the "trimba", a triangular percussion instrument that the composer invented in the late 1940s. The original Trimba is still played today by Moondog's friend Stefan Lakatos, a Swedish percussionist, to whom Moondog also explained the methods for building such an instrument.

Influence
Moondog's music from the 1940s and 1950s is said to have been a strong influence on many early minimalist composers. Philip Glass has written that he and Steve Reich took Moondog's work "very seriously and understood and appreciated it much more than what we were exposed to at Juilliard".

In July 1956 the British jazz composer and musician Kenny Graham recorded the album Moondog and Suncat Suites with a thirteen-piece band featuring such performers as pianist Stan Tracey and drummer Phil Seamen. "Moondog" featured Graham's arrangements of ten Moondog compositions, whereas "Suncat Suite" consisted of a sequence of six of Graham's own compositions inspired by Moondog. HMV issued the original LP album in 1957; Trunk Records reissued it on CD in 2010.

Moondog inspired other musicians with several songs dedicated to him. These include "Moondog" on Pentangle's 1968 album Sweet Child and "Spear for Moondog" (parts I and II) by jazz organist Jimmy McGriff on his 1968 Electric Funk album. Glam rock musician Marc Bolan and T. Rex referenced him in the song "Rabbit Fighter" with the line "Moondog's just a prophet to the end…". The English pop group Prefab Sprout included the song "Moondog" on their album Jordan: The Comeback released in 1990. Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin covered his song "All Is Loneliness" on their 1967 self-titled album. The song was also covered by Antony and the Johnsons during their 2005 tour. Mr. Scruff's single "Get a Move On" from his album Keep It Unreal is structured around samples from "Bird's Lament". New York band The Insect Trust play a cover of Moondog's song "Be a Hobo" on their album Hoboken Saturday Night. The track "Stamping Ground", with its preamble of Moondog reciting one of his epigrams, was featured on the sampler double album Fill Your Head with Rock (CBS, 1970).  Canadian composer and producer Daniel Lanois included a track called "Moondog" on his album/video-documentary Here Is What Is.

Between 1970 and 1980, a blind bearded mystic called "Moondog" appeared as the title character in a four issue series of Underground comix written and illustrated by George Metzger.

Since the early 1970s, a number of professional wrestlers have been named The Moondogs, taking inspiration from the artist.

Discography

Singles
"Snaketime Rhythms (5 Beat) / Snaketime Rhythms (7 Beat)" (1949), SMC
"Moondog's Symphony" (1949–1950), SMC
"Organ Rounds" (1949–1950), SMC
"Oboe Rounds" (1949–1950), SMC
"Surf Session" (c. 1953), SMC
"Caribea Sextet"/"Oo Debut" (1956), Moondog Records
"Stamping Ground Theme" (from the Kralingen Music Festival) (1970), CBS

EPs
1953 Improvisations at a Jazz Concert, Brunswick
1953 Moondog on the Streets of New York, Decca/Mars
1953 Pastoral Suite / Surf Session, SMC
1955 Moondog & His Honking Geese Playing Moondog's Music, Moondog Records

Albums
1953 Moondog and His Friends, Epic
1956 Snaketime Series (not the same as the 1954 LP), Moondog Records
1956 Moondog, Prestige
1956 More Moondog, Prestige
1957 The Story of Moondog, Prestige
1969 Moondog (not the same as the 1956 LP), Columbia
1971 Moondog 2, Columbia (with insert: Round the World of Sound: Moondog Madrigals with scores)
1977 Moondog in Europe, Kopf
1978 H'art Songs, Kopf
1978 Moondog: Instrumental Music by Louis Hardin, Musical Heritage Society
1979 A New Sound of an Old Instrument, Kopf
1981 Facets, Managarm
1986 Bracelli, Kakaphone
1992 Elpmas, Kopf
1994 Sax Pax for a Sax with the London Saxophonic, Kopf/Atlantic
1995 Big Band, Trimba
2005 Bracelli und Moondog, Laska Records

With Julie Andrews and Martyn Green
1957 Songs of Sense and Nonsense - Tell it Again, Angel/Capitol

Compilations
1991 More Moondog/The Story of Moondog, Original Jazz Classics (reissue of Prestige albums listed above)
2001 Moondog/Moondog 2, Beat Goes On (reissue of the two Columbia albums issued above)
2004 The Viking of Sixth Avenue, Honest Jon's
2005 The German Years 1977–1999, ROOF Music
2005 Un hommage à Moondog tribute album, trAce label
2006 Rare Material, ROOF Music
2007 The Viking Of 6th Avenue (disc inside biographical book), Process ().  Reissue, Honest Jon, 2008
2017 The Viking of Sixth Ave., Manimal

Various artist compilations
1954 New York 19 (recorded and edited by Tony Schwartz), Folkways
1954 Music in the Streets (recorded and edited by Tony Schwartz), Folkways
1958 Rosey 4 Blocks (arrangement by Andy Forsythe), Rosey
1970 Fill Your Head With Rock, CBS
1998 The Big Lebowski motion picture soundtrack, Mercury
2000 Miniatures 2, Cherry Red
2006 DJ-Kicks: Henrik Schwarz, K7 Records
2006 The Trip: Curated By Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey, Disc 1 Track 19: "Pastoral"
2008 Pineapple Express Motion Picture Sound Track, Track 9 "Birds Lament," Moondog & The London Saxophonic.

Performed by other musicians
1957 Moondog and Suncat Suite by British jazz musician Kenny Graham features one side of interpretations of the work of Moondog
1967 "All Is Loneliness" by Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin, on their self-titled first album 
1968 "Moon Dog" by Pentangle on Sweet Child
1968 "Spear for Moondog (parts 1 and 2)" by jazz organist Jimmy McGriff on Electric Funk
1970 "Be a Hobo" by The Insect Trust on Hoboken Saturday Night 
1978 Canons on the Keys by Paul Jordan, unreleased
1983 Here's to John Wesley Hardin by R. Stevie Moore, unreleased
1985 "Theme and Variations" performed by John Fahey on the album Rain Forests, Oceans and Other Themes
1990 Love Child Plays Moondog, EP, Forced Exposure
1990 "Moondog" by Prefab Sprout on Jordan: The Comeback 
1993 "All is Loneliness" by Motorpsycho on Demon Box (album) and Roadwork Vol. 4: Intrepid Skronk
1995 Alphorn of Plenty by Hans Kennel, Hat Art
1997 "Synchrony Nr. 2" by Kronos Quartet
1998 Trees Against the Sky compilation album, SHI-RA-Nui 360°
1998 "Paris" by NRBQ, live, on You Gotta Be Loose and NRBQ: High Noon - A 50-Year Retrospective
1999 "Get a Move On" (structured around samples from "Bird's Lament (In Memory of Charlie Parker)") by Mr. Scruff on Keep It Unreal
2004 Bracelli und Moondog CD Ensemble Bracelli, Germany w Stefan Lakatos. LASKA records
2005 "All Is Loneliness" by Antony and the Johnsons, live 
2005 Sidewalk Dances by Joanna MacGregor & Britten Sinfonia, Sound Circus SC010
2006 Moondog Sharp Harp by Xenia Narati, Ars Musici
2007 "Paris" by Jens Lekman, live
2009 "Rabbit Hop" by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
2009 "New Amsterdam" by Pink Martini on Splendor in the Grass
2010 The Orastorios - Moondog rounds by Stefan Lakatos/Andreas Heuser, Makro 
2011 Making Moonshine - Moondog Songs by Moondog Fans by Various Artists, SL Records
2011 Chaconne 1 & Viking 1 by R. Stevie Moore, unreleased
2013 Seeds of Immortality Spirit of Moondog w Stefan Lakatos. Moondog music for saxophones.
2013 tRío lucas - homage to Moondog in the introduction of the song desintegración de la antimateria by tRío lucas
2013 Moondog Mask by Hobocombo
2014 Perpetual Motion (A Celebration of Moondog) by Sylvain Rifflet & Jon Irabagon
2015 Beyond Horizons Moondog Piano/Percussion by Mariam Tonoyan and Stefan Lakatos and friends. CD Moondogscorner.de/Rockwerk records
2015 Cabaret Contemporain Plays Moondog by Cabaret Contemporain
2016 A Tribute To Moondog by Condor Gruppe (2016) on Condor Men Records – Format: Vinyl, LP, Mini-Album
2017 New Sound by Ensemble Minisym (2017) on Association Bongo Joe Records (Genève) – Format : Vinyl, CD, LP
2018 Moondog by Katia Labèque & Triple Sun
2018 Erk-Moondog Ensemble Bracelli w Stefan Lakatos. CD Moondogscorner.de/Rockwerk records Germany
2019 The Witch of Endor by Kreiz Breizh Akademi #7 "Hed" (Brittany, France)
2019 Moondog Piano Trimba by Dominique Ponty and Stefan Lakatos, SHIIN Records CD (France)
2019 Moondog - The Stockholm 1981 Recordings Moondog & Stefan Lakatos w friends. Vinyl LP brus&knaster KNASTER 048. Sweden

References

Further reading

Articles

Books

External links
 Moondog's Corner
 Moondog discography at Discogs
 Moondog: the Man on the Street, WBAI; ubu.com
 Moondog's Artist Page on Spotify

1916 births
1999 deaths
Musicians from Kansas
Musicians from New York City
Musicians from Wyoming
People from Marysville, Kansas
American street performers
American jazz composers
American male jazz composers
Blind musicians
Street people
American Modern Pagans
Outsider musicians
People from Uinta County, Wyoming
American experimental musicians
Inventors of musical instruments
Avant-garde jazz percussionists
Minimalist composers
20th-century American poets
20th-century American composers
Modern Pagan poets
Jazz musicians from New York (state)
20th-century American inventors
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century jazz composers
Performers of Modern Pagan music
Moondog is an album by the American composer Moondog, released by Columbia Masterworks Records on October 1, 1969. The album came into being on the initiative of James William Guercio and consists of compositions written by Moondog as he moved from his previous jazz style into becoming a classical composer. The music was written in the 1950s and 1960s and rescored for orchestra. It includes short symphonic-styled works, canons, chaconnes and a couple of jazz-inspired tracks, one in memory of Moondog's friend Charlie Parker. The album was recorded at Columbia's main studio with Moondog conducting 50 musicians. It received considerable media exposure and positive reviews, peaking as number 6 on the Billboard chart for classical music.

Background
Louis Hardin (1916 – 1999) was a blind composer and musician who was born in Kansas as the son of a priest, moved to New York City in 1943 and took the name Moondog in 1947. From the late 1940s until 1974, he was active as a street musician in New York, performing his own music. He received some attention from journalists and musicians and made a series of recordings from 1949 to 1957, including four albums:  (1953), released by Epic Records, and Moondog (1956),  (1956) and  (1957), released by Prestige Records. In the 1960s he developed his image and worldview: he dressed in a homemade Viking-inspired costume, was a neopagan who believed in the Norse gods and set up an altar at his country retreat in Candor.

In 1969, Moondog was approached by the producer James William Guercio and an executive from Columbia Records. Guercio had met Moondog a couple of years previously and persuaded Columbia to produce a Moondog album. Moondog signed a contract for two albums with Columbia on March 6, 1969. The terms included that record company's executives were not allowed to hear the music ahead of recording.

Composition and recording
The music on Moondog was largely composed in the 1950s and early 1960s and rescored for orchestra. Work on the album began in May 1969. Guercio and Al Brown, who functioned as Moondog's manager, co-produced the album and the latter put together an assembly of 50 musicians. The album was recorded in Columbia's main studio Old Church on East 33rd Street. Moondog conducted the orchestra. In addition to the music, Moondog recorded two of his rhyming epigrams. The first of these couplets is located between the album's first and second track and the second opens side two.

Music

In the 1960s, Moondog had moved from the jazz idiom of his early works and toward being a classical composer. In the album notes for Moondog he praised classicism and rejected the belief that there is such a thing as originality. Few of Moondog's custom-made instruments appear on the album; they had previously been among his more distinctive features. Only his percussion instrument the trimba and a new bowed instrument he called hus, from the Norwegian word for "house", can be heard alongside the conventional orchestra instruments.

Moondog begins with "Theme", a cross between or combination of chaconne and ground played in 5/4 time. Moondog described it as "my theme, a sort of musical signature". A previous version had been recorded for Moondog and His Friends as "Theme and Variations". In the earlier version, Moondog played all instruments, whereas in the 1969 version it was reworked into a maxisym. Maxisym was Moondog's own term for a composition for a full orchestra; its opposite was a minisym, written for a handful of musicians.

"Stamping Ground" was written in the 1950s and not previously recorded. It takes inspiration from Native American music and is constructed with a canon melody line, a four-note ground played on timpani and a coda that ends in retardation.

"Symphonique #3 (Ode to Venus)" is another update of a composition featured on Moondog and His Friends. It is an enlarged version, six minutes long, of the second movement of that album's "Suite No. 2", which in its earlier version was two and a half minutes long. It is a canon in twelve parts and an homage to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Side one ends with "Symphonique #6 (Good for Goodie)", a ground inspired by swing music. The composition has much melodic detail. It features a clarinet that uses high notes in the vein of Benny Goodman.

"Minisym #1" was first performed in 1967 and consists of three short movements in 4/4 time. The album notes describe the first movement as "jovial", the second as "lyrical" and the third as "vivacious". The first and third feature a bassoon and the second is played with horn.

"Lament 1 (Bird's Lament)" is a chaconne where an alto saxophone accentuates the melody. Along with "Good for Goodie" it represents Moondog's interest in jazz music in the 1950s. It was composed in 1955 after the death of Charlie Parker, who Moondog had known personally. The two had discussed music and the prospect of performing together in the early 1950s.

The longest track on Moondog is the six-and-a-half minute "Witch of Endor", which also is the album's most academic composition. It consists of three movements. The first is a canon in minor and 5/4 time inspired by Anatolian music that represents a witch's dance, the second a trio representing the demise of the Biblical King Saul, and the third repeats the first.

"Symphonique # 1 (Portrait of a Monarch)" is Moondogs final track and was written in 1960. The ambition was to capture both the playful side and the strength of Moondog's fictional character Thor the Nordoom, the protagonist of a "soundsaga" or "poetic myth" he had developed. The central theme is about how the old, personified by a ruthless and clever "Emperor of Earth", manages to assume power over the new.

Release
Ahead of the release of Moondog, Moondog moved his street-music activity from his established location at 53rd and 6th to the CBS Building at 51 West 52nd Street, where he remained until the end of the summer of 1970. The album was released under the Columbia Masterworks Records label on October 1, 1969 and received much publicity. Moondog was interviewed in newspapers and on radio, and appeared on television shows including The Today Show, The Merv Griffin Show and The Tonight Show. During the latter appearance he conducted the studio orchestra for a performance of "Bird's Lament".

Moondogs cover features a photograph of Moondog in profile with the title Moondog on top as the only text. It is a fold-out cover where the front and back form a  poster of Moondog in his Viking costume. Program notes on the inside contain Moondog's thoughts on classicism and adherence to modal rules. "Stamping Ground" was released as a single with "Theme" as its B-side in 1970.

Reception
When Moondog first was released, Entertainment Today said it ended Moondog's status as "a freak attraction" and that he must be viewed as "a fine rich-sounding composer". Variety also stressed the serious impression of the compositions, saying the album deserves its place in the Masterworks series. The least positive review came from Stephen Smoliar of Boston After Dark, who wrote that Moondog's combination of classical and modern elements disappoints because it does not reach its potential. Smolier said the recording of the minisym was a failure but called the album "one of the more stimulating musical oddities of the twentieth century".

According to the music journalist Stuart Jeffries, Moondog and its successor Moondog 2 (1971) became "as much student must-haves as Che T-shirts" in the 1970s. Writing for Pitchfork in 2017, Thea Ballard said that by combining classical European elements and the rhythms of New York's minimalist music, the album "absorbs the essence of an era while peering beyond it". Stewart Mason wrote for AllMusic: "Although Moondog is often thought of as a mere exotica novelty, thanks to the composer's eccentricities, it is, in fact, one of the finest third stream jazz albums of its era."

Moondog entered the Billboard chart for best-selling classical albums as number 39 on October 25. It peaked as number 6 on December 12. It fell from the chart in January 1970. "Stamping Ground" was successful in the Benelux region.

Legacy
"Stamping Ground" was used as theme music for the Holland Pop Festival, held in Rotterdam in June 1970. The festival, which drew around 150,000 people, is the subject of the 1971 documentary film Stamping Ground directed by George Sluizer and . The film The Big Lebowski (1996) features "Stamping Ground" as a contrast to the musical taste of Jeff Bridges' character the Dude. The British DJ Mr. Scruff used the recording of "Bird's Lament" as the uncredited basis for his track "Get a Move On" (1999), which has been used in car commercials.

Track listing
All tracks are written by Louis Hardin, also known as Moondog.

Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's sleeve notes.
 Flute: Harold Bennet, Andrew Lolya, Harold Jones (piccolo), Hubert Laws (piccolo)
 English horn: Henry Shuman, Irving Horowitz
 French horn: James Buffington, Richard Berg, Ray Alonge, Brooks Tillotson
 Clarinet: Jimmy Abato, George Silfies, Phil Bodner
 Bass clarinet: Ernie Bright
 Bassoon: Jack Knitzer, Don Macourt, Ryohei Nakagawa, George Berg, Wally Kane, Joyce Kelly
 Baritone saxophone: Wally Kane
 Trumpet: Joe Wilder
 Bass trumpet: Danny Repole
 Tuba: Don Butterfield, Bill Stanley
 Tenor tuba: Bill Stanley, Bill Elton, John Swallow, Phil Giardina
 Tenor trombone: Tony Studd, Charles Small, Buddy Morrow
 Bass trombone: Paul Faulise
 Percussion: Jack Jennings, Dave Carey, Elayne Jones, Bob Rosengarden
 Violin: Paul Gershman, Aaron Rosand
 Viola: Emanuel Vardi, David Schwartz, Eugene Becker, Raoul Poliakin
 Cello: George Ricci, Charles McCracken
 Contrabass cello: Joe Tekula
 Tenor: Raoul Poliakin, Eugene Becker
 Bass: George Duvivier, Ron Carter, Alfred Brown, Louis Hardin

References

Citations

Sources
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1969 albums
Moondog albums
Columbia Records albums Larry Booker (June 6, 1952 – November 29, 2003), better known by his ring names Moondog Spot and Larry Latham, was an American professional wrestler.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1977–1981) 
Booker debuted in 1977 under the ring name Larry Latham. Latham formed a tag team with Carl Fergie called "The Ragin' Cajuns" managed by Billy Spears in the Gulf Coast territory. Early in his career, he wrestled in Memphis and Mid-South, and his first big push came as a member of the Blond Bombers with Wayne Farris (The Honky Tonk Man). The Blond Bombers were involved in heated feuds with several babyfaces across the two competing Tennessee promotions, appearing in both Nick Gulas Nashville based territory, and Jerry Jarrett's Memphis area. The team was managed by Danny Davis. Their signature moment was the "Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl" against Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee, which occurred on June 15, 1979 and won Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Feud of the Year in 1992. This served as a precursor to the "hardcore" style that was popularized by Extreme Championship Wrestling in the mid-1990s.

World Wrestling Federation and Memphis (1981–1987) 
Years later, Booker resurfaced as "Moondog Spot", a member of The Moondogs, whose name was suggested by Vincent J. McMahon. Booker became a WWWF World Tag Team Champion as a replacement for Moondog King in May 1981. Booker held the title along with Moondog Rex until they were defeated by Rick Martel and Tony Garea on July 21, 1981. The Moondogs also frequently appeared in Memphis where they feuded with The Fabulous Ones, The Rock 'n' Roll Express, and Midnight Express. With scraggly hair and beards, Spot and Rex wore tattered blue jeans and simple black boots to the ring, carrying their trademark oversized, dinosaur-looking bones, which were often used as foreign objects when needed. 

The Moondogs became a regular gimmick in the Memphis promotion featuring a revolving door of wrestlers who teamed with Latham. In 1984, Booker and Rex returned to the WWF with Jimmy Hart as their manager. The next year, they split up and Rex became the original Smash in Demolition before being replaced by Barry Darsow. On November 7, 1985, he wrestled in the tournament on the WWF pay-per-view event Wrestling Classic, defeating Terry Funk in the first round by count out, but losing to Junkyard Dog in the quarterfinals. After the tournament, Spot was relegated to jobber status until leaving the company in 1987.

Various promotions (1987–2003) 
After leaving the WWF, he went to All Japan Pro Wrestling where he teamed with Moondog Spike for a few months in late 1987. Spot kept up The Moondogs gimmick. For most of his career, he stayed in Memphis working for the United States Wrestling Association from 1991 to 1996, where he won the USWA Southern Tag Team titles with Spike, Cujo and Splat. He also worked in Smoky Mountain Wrestling from 1993 to 1994. He would stick around Tennessee for the independent circuit mainly working for Power Pro Wrestling. Latham later operated a wrestling school in Osceola, Arkansas. During his few appearances in the independent circuit, he would usually team up with Moondog Puppy Love, working in Memphis Wrestling, with April Pennington acting as their manager. In March 2003, he made an appearance as Moondog Spot in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he teamed with Jim Duggan to defeat Mike Sanders and Disco Inferno.

Death
On November 29, 2003, Booker suffered a heart attack in the ring during Jerry Lawler's "birthday bash" show in Memphis, Tennessee. He was rushed to Methodist Central Hospital where he was pronounced dead at the age of 51. A coroner attributed his death to complications from diabetes and other medical ailments. Following the show, the crowd was informed of his death, a ten-bell salute was performed, and Brian Christopher asked the fans to pray for Booker’s family, who had been in attendance. Booker was buried at the Zion Hill Church Cemetery in Friendship, Tennessee; Lawler attended his funeral.

Championships and accomplishments
International Championship Wrestling (New England)
ICW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Moondog Spike

Moondog Championship Wrestling
MCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
NWA Mid-America - Continental Wrestling Association
AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (5 times) – with Wayne Farris (3), Bill Irwin (1) and Moondog Rex (1)
NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Wayne Farris
CWA Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
NWA Alabama Heavyweight Championship (1 times)

Power Pro Wrestling
PPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Derrick King
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI Feud of the Year (1992) with Moondog Cujo vs. Jerry Lawler and Jeff Jarrett

Southern Championship Wrestling
SCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

United States Wrestling Association
USWA World Tag Team Championship (13 times) – with Moondog Spike (3), Moondog Cujo (2), Moondog Splat (4), Moondog Rex (3), and Moondog Rover (1)

World Wrestling Council
WWC North American Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Moondog Rex
WWC Caribbean Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Moondog Rex
WWC World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Moondog Rex

World Wrestling Federation
WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Moondog Rex

Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
Feud of the Year (1992) with Moondog Cujo vs. Jerry Lawler and Jeff Jarrett

References

External links
In Memory of Moondog Spot
The Accelerator's Wrestling Rollercoaster: Moondog Spot
Deceased Wrestlers - Moondog Spot
Moondog Spot at Find a Grave

1952 births
2003 deaths
American male professional wrestlers
People from Louisiana
Professional wrestlers from Louisiana
Professional wrestling deaths
Professional wrestling jobbers
Sports deaths in Tennessee
The First Family (professional wrestling) members